McKee Botanical Gardens

In 1929 the McKee-Sexton Land Company purchased an 80-acre tropical hammock along the Indian River in Vero Beach, Florida. With the assistance of famed landscape architect Wiliam Lyman Phillips McKee Jungle Gardens was born. By the 1940’s more than 100,000 tourists were visiting McKee each year making it one of Florida’s most popular attractions. However as time passed McKee’s popularity was eclipsed by other attractions and in 1976 the garden closed its doors and the majority of the property was sold and developed.

The remaining 18 acres lay abandoned and forgotten until the mid 1990s when the Indian River Land Trust purchased the property and launched a multi-year restoration effort. These photographs capture the garden in its period of rebirth and reemergence from its jungle past and were created entirely with a traditional large format view camera.

Spider Lily

Entrance Pond - Infrared #9

Bambusa Gigantea

Park of the Stone Bridge - Infrared #8

Shell Ginger

Aviary - Infrared #2

Crinum Lily

Hall of Giants - Infrared #3

Gate to the Past

Upstairs, Hall of Giants - Infrared #5

Senegal Date Palm

Two Lilies

Greeting - Infrared #6

Survivor

Washington, DC

Mountains and Clouds, Hart Senate Office Building

Lincoln Memorial

Capitol Dome

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

Paris & Normandy

Louvre, Paris

Morning in the Tuileries, Paris

Cafe de Flora, Paris

Remembering the Resistance, Quai de Orsay, Paris

Pont de Solferion, Paris

Montmarte, Paris

West Terrace, Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy

Great Pillard Crypt, Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy

American Cemetary, Normandy

Wall of the Missing, American Cemetery, Normandy

The West

Springtime, Vail Mountain, Colorado

Gore Creek, Vail, Colorado

Center for the Performing Arts, Denver, Colorado

Denver Art Museum, Colorado

Greek Ampitheatre, Civic Center Park, Denver, Colorado

Moraine Park, Rocky Mt. National Park, Colorado

Ghost Town, St. Elmo, Colorado

Not this Rodeo

F.M. Light & Sons, Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Trio - Fraizer, Colorado

Ghosts of the Coldwar

This project is dedicated to recording the engineering and technological artifacts left behind by one of the most significant periods in American history. The global battle between democracy and communism required massive resources, and while the equipment may seem antiquated by today's standards, it often pushed the scientific and technological limits of its time.

Much of this decades-long conflict occurred out of the public view. With few attention-grabbing "battles" much of the tremendous infrastructure of the Cold War was rarely seen in any detail. Combining documentary and fine art photography, the goal of this project is to capture these historic facilities and machines before they are retrofitted, reused or destroyed.

Spartan Missile Silo, Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, North Dakota

Located a few dozen miles from the Canadian border, the Mickelsen Safeguard Complex was built as an antiballistic missile system to protect North Dakota's Minuteman missiles from enemy attack. The site housed thirty Spartan interceptors missiles designed to shoot down enemy warheads before they reentered the atmosphere. The Mickelsen complex was completed in 1975 but deemed ineffective against rapidly progressing missile technology and deactivated barely six months later.

The Mickelsen complex housed a massive, pyramid-shaped Missile Site Radar (MSR) designed to track incoming enemy missiles. The MSR's outer walls were built of four foot thick concrete and the building was lined with steel plate to protect it from an electromagnetic pulse.

Minuteman Launch Control Center, Cooperstown, North Dakota

Activated in 1964, the 321st Strategic Missile Wing was the last Minuteman Wing to be deployed. Support equipment was housed in an underground egg-shaped capsule built of steel plate surrounded by reinforced concrete.

Mt. Pony Contingency Processing Center, Culpeper, Virginia

Starting in the Truman era the Continuity of Government (COG) program functioned as a means for the continued operation of the civilian government during a nuclear war. In the event of an impending nuclear attach key leaders would be evacuated to these secret, hardened locations. From 1969 to 1992 The Federal Reserve Communication and Records Center (aka Mt. Pony) secretly served as one of these facilities. In addition Mt. Pony's first floor housed massive vaults that held pallets of cash that could be used to replenish the monetary supply in the aftermath of World War III.

Relative Comfort, Mt Pony, Culpeper, Virginia

If you were part of the Federal Reserve's top echelon you could ride out a nuclear war in the relative comfort of a semi-private bedroom. However the facility had only a few of these rooms and the rest of the staff would "hot bunk" in large communal dormitories.

Titan II Missiles, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

On alert from 1963 to the mid-1980s the Titan II was the largest Inter-continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) built by the U.S. Capable of carrying a nuclear warhead 10,000 miles the missiles were deactivated and put in storage at the Air Force's "Desert Boneyard"

From 1946 through the 1950s, the United States worked to develop a nuclear powered airplane. Modified jet engines were attached to experimental nuclear reactors. These systems were moved to a remote testing location via a radiation shielded locomotive. The engineer's cab of the locomotive was built with a nearly 4-foot thick observation window.

Terrier Missile Launcher, China Lake, California

Developed to protect navy ships from attacking aircraft, surface-to-air missiles like the Terrier underwent extensive testing at the U.S. Navy's China Lake gunnery range.

Nike Radar Towers, Granite, Maryland

In the 1950's the Soviet threat came in the form of bombers, not missiles. Over 100 Nike Hercules missile batteries were deployed, many in the north-eastern part of the U.S. where they were intended to defend large citiesand industrial areas. Operating from 1954 to 1974, Nike missile sites were on alert 24-hours a day, manned by Army troops and National Guard Forces. These radar towers were once topped with antennas covered by geodesic domes.

Apple II House, Nevada Test Site, Nevada

In the 1955 Apple II test and entire mock town was subjected to a nuclear blast to determine the effects on various types of homes and buildings. This "typical American community" as outfitted to simulate reality down to mannequins in the homes and fresh food on the tables.

Huron King Test Chamber, Nevada Test Site

The Nevada Test Site has been the home of American nuclear weapons testing since 1951 and the site of almost 1,000 nuclear explosions. In 1980 an underground nuclear device was detonated in a test of space-based military equipment. This chamber housed the communications satellite and other equipment over the top of the shaft containing the nuclear device and was then winched out of the way before being swallowed up in the crater caused by the blast.

Project Pluto Test Stand, Nevada Test Site

Starting in the mid-1950s the Nuclear Rocket Development Area (NRDA) was used for experiments aimed at developing nuclear powered rocket motors. The Air Force's Project Pluto was used to test ramjet engines that utilized radioactive material as their heat source.

Swimming Pool, N.S. Savannah, Newport News, Virginia

Dubbed "A Floating Messenger of Peace" the N.S. Savannah was the first, and one of the only, nuclear powered merchant ships ever built. A product of the "Atoms for Peace" program, the Savannah was designed to break down barriers to the peaceful use of nuclear power. The ship was in service from 1959 to 1971.

Apollo Launch Umbilical Tower, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

All of the men who have traveled to the moon departed Earth from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center. In order to enter their Satern V spacecraft these astronauts had to first traverse the Launch Umbilical Tower which stood nearly 400 feet tall. Following the end of the Apollo program portion of the tower were modified and reused for the Space Shuttle program while the remainder was cut into sections and eventually scraped.